Blue-Chip Street Hemis Discovered In Forest Stash!

Everyone dreams of stumbling onto a blue-chip muscle car in the boneyard, but it rarely happens. When we do, there's an even mixture of happy and sad feelings. Naturally, the thrill of discovering a rarity is pretty intense. But after that buzz wears off, the sight of once-mighty muscle cars in distress can be pretty depressing.

Let's brush the tears aside and poke around this month's discovery of a pair of Mopar Street Hemis in a New York pine forest. Technically speaking, the place isn't a junkyard but rather an outdoor collection of nearly 100 Mopar project cars owned by Larry Hauptman, a lifelong plumber and Mopar enthusiast. A man with an eye for the exotic, Larry doesn't mess with mundane stuff. Instead, he prefers his Mopars with four-speeds, Air Grabber hoods, rare colors, and when the stars align, Hemi power.

Tagging along with a pal who ended up buying a '69 Dart GTS 383 four-speed project car from Larry, I brought my camera and moved from car to car on a brisk fall day. Larry didn't tell me what I was looking at. Instead, he let me add the clues and make discoveries on my own. Tag along now as a rare pair of Street Hemis come to light. If you need to know more about these cars (or the rest of Larry's amazing stash), contact him at Larrymopar@aol.com. Yes, everything is for sale.

Groovy Factoids

Your author hosts a number of online videos about the revitalized Dodge Scat Pack program. Watch them on YouTube or at the RedlineDodge.com website.

Though they look the same, the Coronet R/T's 117-inch wheelbase is 1-inch longer than the Road Runner's 116-inch span.

2/14The extra strength of its fixed B-pillars wasn’t enough to prevent a years-ago barn collapse from squashing this ’69 Hemi Road Runner coupe’s lid. Still wearing most of the Ivy Green metallic paint applied at the Lynch Road, Michigan, assembly plant, it is one of 162 pillar coupes built with the 727 Torqueflite transmission. 1969 was the peak year for Road Runner production with 82,109 made. Of them, only 788 buyers coughed up the $813.45 for Hemi power.

3/14Made mostly from fiber-reinforced molded plastic, the underhood ductwork for the N96 Air Grabber hood escaped the rust that’s consuming the hood. Standard on Hemi cars, 383 Road Runner buyers paid $55.30 for the Air Grabber upgrade (also marketed as the Coyote Duster). Don’t be fooled by the loose distributor cap, the Hemi is long gone. In its place is a 318 2-barrel small-block somebody swapped in long ago. The original paint makes us cry.

5/14The RM21 Road Runner 383 coupe started at $2,599—a full $484 less than the RM23 hardtop. Thus, most coupes were bought by cost-conscious folks and came with basic bench seats and column shifters (when automatic-equipped). Surprisingly, this coupe was ordered with sporty bucket seats ($100.85) and the C16 center console ($54.45). The lack of headrests tells us this car was built before January 1, 1969, when the Fed mandated their installation as standard equipment.

6/14In 1968, Plymouth circulated this line drawing to highlight the Road Runner’s long list of standard features. One odd detail separating ’68s from ’69s was the color of the “beep beep” horn. First-year cars got a basic black horn (with special aluminum windings to emulate the cartoon bird’s call), while second-year cars (and all Road Runners through ’75) came with their horn housings painted light purple. A sticker reading “voice of the Road Runner” was affixed in ’69 and beyond. In ’68, the hood scoops were non-functional, not even on Hemi cars.

7/14General opinion has it that Street Hemis were always fitted with 15-inch wheels. That’s not always true, as numerous period photos and unrestored Hemi cars prove. This 14x5.5-styled steel wheel (aka Road Wheel) was probably original equipment and hides the standard-issue 11x3-inch front drum brake. Coupled with 11x21⁄2-inch rear drums, Mopars had the biggest—and best—standard brakes in the muscle-car business. Eleven-inch B41 front disc brakes were a $45 option and were combined with smaller 10x21⁄2-inch rear drums to achieve proper front/rear brake balance when ordered.

8/14The strangest Road Runner magazine road test of all appeared in the Nov. ’68 edition of the now defunct Motorcade magazine. In a story titled “The Airstream Grand Prix,” author Wayne Thoms tested the limits of travel trailer towing by hooking a 31-foot Airstream Sovereign International to this ’68 Hemi Road Runner (equipped with 727 Torqueflite and optional power front disc brakes). Similar trailers were coupled to a Pontiac Ventura (powered by a 340hp 400 4-bbl), Chevy Caprice (with the 385hp 427 4-bbl), and Buick LeSabre (with 280hp 350 4-bbl), then a series of tests were conducted at Riverside Raceway. The Hemi won the 0–60 acceleration test in 14.9 seconds but lagged in the 65–0 panic stop at 193 feet (shown here, note the locked trailer tires). Oddly, the Buick and Pontiac stopped in 160 feet, sharing the win. With its 4,650-pound load, testers noted the Road Runner was prone to pre-ignition under full throttle. Where is this car today?

9/14Less than 100 feet from the forlorn Hemi Road Runner sits this stripped Coronet. At first, it looked to be a lowly Slant Six or 318 shell, but we know Larry Hauptman better than that. Yep, it’s a ’68 Hemi Coronet R/T. The pale yellow was sprayed over its original B5 Bright Blue Metallic and “bumble bee” tail stripe. The Coronet R/T languished in the shadow of the sensational new “Coke bottle” ’68 Charger R/T, and sales proved it. The ’68 Coronet R/T production was 10,558, versus 17,665 for the Charger R/T. Both shared the 375hp 440 Magnum as standard equipment. One detail that bolstered the Coronet R/T’s market position was the fact it was available as a convertible. Super Bees and Chargers were fixed-roof-only propositions in ’68.

10/14Again, the magical J engine code verifies Street Hemi status and the fact this car was one of a mere 220 built (plus another 9 convertibles). The WS23J8A106063 VIN tag breaks down as such: WS23 = Coronet R/T hardtop; J = Hemi; 8 = 1968 model year; A = Lynch Road, Michigan, assembly plant; 106063 = 6,063rd unit to roll off the Lynch Road line in 1968. Super Bees are quickly identified by VIN code WM21, of which 7,842 were built. Of them, only 125 were Hemis, the rest packed 383 4-bbls with 335 hp and engine code H.

11/14Despite the aluminum dual-quad intake manifold—with its elaborate cast-iron heads and thick cross-bolted engine block—a fully dressed Street Hemi weighs about 720 pounds. Whoever ordered this R/T traded a bit of performance for greatly eased three-point turns, thanks to the optional power steering ($94.85) and improved stopping via power (drum) brakes ($41.75). We didn’t crawl under, but if the 727 Torqueflite transmission is original, it’s packed with extra-duty guts like a five-plate front clutch pack (versus the three or four plates used elsewhere), fast-apply kickdown lever, specific governor, and other durability and strength enhancements. The Hemi-specific K-frame is gone, likely due to a non-Hemi engine swap at some point along the line.

12/14Taken from a vintage Dodge magazine ad, this crisp, new ’68 Coronet R/T provides a sad contrast. But we’ve seen 100-point show cars rise from ashes worse than these, and being a 1-of-220-made Hemi car, there’s little doubt somebody will eventually rise to the task. If the grille looks familiar to ’69 Dodge Charger 500 owners, that’s because Dodge borrowed it to reduce drag versus the ’69 Charger’s stock tunneled grille treatment. Between 392 and 500 Charger 500s were built in 1969 (published totals vary).

13/14This magazine ad helped Dodge move 7,842 Coronet Super Bees in 1968 (versus 10,558 Coronet R/Ts). It wasn’t a bad total considering the Bee’s mid-year introduction. Dodge saw the runaway success of the Road Runner and conjured its own budget muscle car. The Super Bee was priced $326 less than the Coronet R/T ($3,027–$3,353) and was targeted at teenage buyers. Dodge recently revived the Scat Pack after a 45-year hiatus with a series of over-the-counter, performance-enhancement kits for late-model Dart, Challenger, and Charger owners. The good old days are here again!

14/14We’ll never know if this 1967 magazine ad inspired the original buyers of Larry’s Coronet R/T and Road Runner to step up to the optional 426 Street Hemi. Maybe it was just voodoo. Regardless, there’s no doubt this pair of pachyderm-powered Mopars delivered plenty of late-night street fun when new. Interestingly, this same ad—but with the grainy photo of the Street Hemi replaced by a Peter Max–esque cartoon rendering—appeared in the major buff magazines for 1968–’69. End